7 Tips to Help You Avoid Repeating the Same Mistakes

Most of us live lives riddled with the same mistakes relived time and time again. This is incredibly common, but life doesn't have to be this way.

We have the ability to learn from our past. We can make wiser decisions and behave differently in the future.

Those that can do this successfully find life to be much easier than those that can't.

Imagine a life where you only make a particular mistake once. How much easier and more successful would your life be? Many of the mistakes we repeat severely limit our progress.

Eliminating repeated mistakes can be more powerful than learning new information or developing new skills.

Consider these ideas to make the most of your mistakes and never repeat them again:

1. Identify your mistakes.

You can’t avoid what you don’t identify. Look back over the last few days and think about the mistakes you’ve made. Do the same with the past year, and then your entire life.

● Write out all the significant mistakes you’ve made.

● Repeat this process each evening for the day you just lived.

2. Notice patterns of behavior.

It’s generally not the mistakes you only make once that disrupt your life the most. It’s the mistakes you make over and over.

What are the mistakes you seem to make time and time again? These are the mistakes that deserve your focus.

● Fixing these mistakes will have a great impact on your life.

3. Have a plan.

It's not enough to identify your mistakes. It's important to have a plan going forward into the future. What will you do when the same situation arises in the future? How will you avoid making the same mistake again?

● Identify how you want to handle things going forward. Without a plan, you're doomed to repeat your mistakes.

4. Harness the power of habits.

If you're regularly making the same mistakes, this is a perfect circumstance for developing a new habit. The best way to replace a negative habit is to create a new, positive habit.

● Suppose you're consistently late for work. A beneficial habit to develop might be to wake up 30 minutes earlier.

● If you drink too much soda, a good habit to create might be to carry water with you everywhere you go.

Ensure that you understand the full impact your mistakes are having on your life. You'll be more motivated to avoid repeating them if you have a complete understanding of how they negatively impact your life.

● Pain is a significant motivation for humans. What pain are your mistakes causing you?

6. Understand the benefit of the new, positive behavior.

Fortunately, humans are also motivated by pleasure. Identify the benefits you will receive by changing your behavior. It's not enough to casually recognize the benefits.

● It's imperative to visualize the benefits and create an emotional charge.

7. Monitor.

Notice when you've made a new mistake, repeated an old mistake, or avoided an old mistake.

Checking yourself regularly is the best way to continue making progress.

No one likes to make mistakes, but it's simply a part of life. However, just because mistakes are common doesn't mean we have to continue making the same mistakes over and over again.

Ensuring that you make a mistake only once is a great way to enjoy your life more and to experience more success.

Vow to yourself that you're only going to make a particular mistake once. Once is enough!

6 Mental Errors That Lead to Poor Decisions

We can often trace the greatest challenges in our life to just a couple of poor decisions. Effective decisions require clear thinking and accurate perceptions of the situation and how the world works.

It’s easy to allow mental errors to lead to making a poor choice.

It’s not always easy to make a wise decision, but there are things we can do to increase our odds.

Consider these mental errors that can degrade your ability to make a wise decision:

1. Failing to consider the long-term implications.

Short-term thinking can lead to long-term challenges. Many of us focus more on the short-term than the long-term when making decisions.

We choose the yummiest food to eat or the most enjoyable way to spend the next hour.

● In most cases, we are better served by considering the long-term implications of our decisions.

2. Survivorship bias.

We often look at the most successful people as a template for success. We assume their way is the best way. However, this fails to take into account all the people that follow the same strategy but fail.

● For example, many successful people failed to graduate from high school, but it would be wrong to assume that education isn't helpful to success.

● Many people have put in the same time and effort as LeBron James or Michael Jordan but failed to become professional basketball players.

Perhaps there are other reasons for their success that you haven’t considered. A different approach might work better for you.

● Some of the most successful people in our society have been successful in spite of their process. It's not always easy to identify when this occurs.

3. Overemphasizing loss versus gain.

Humans are naturally more sensitive to losing something they already have than motivated to gain the same item. For example, most of us are more bothered by the prospect of losing $100 than we are motivated to earn $100.

● This happens frequently in new businesses. A brand-new business is highly motivated to grow. However, once it reaches a certain size the owner begins to worry more about protecting what the business has gained than he is in growing further.

4. Confirmation bias.

We have a natural tendency to interpret facts and situations in a way that supports our current beliefs. For example, highly religious people tend to interpret all good fortune as proof of the presence of God.

● Those that believe that hard work is all that matters will ignore any other factors that contribute to success. They will also ignore the concepts of luck, talent, and mentorship.

● How are your current beliefs tainting your interpretation of your life and your environment?

5. Fatigue, stress, and other forms of discomfort.

You’ve probably made more than your fair share of ineffective decisions while being tired, overstressed, or physically or psychologically uncomfortable.

Discomfort of any kind can negatively affect the decision-making process.

6. Personalization.

Sometimes, we take things too personally. We might believe that we didn't get a promotion because the boss didn't like us. But sometimes people make decisions that have nothing to do with us.

● Everyone has things going on in their life that we don't know about. It's a mistake to assume that everything is about you.

Fewer unwise decisions results in greater success and happiness. We create many of the challenges we face in life by making poor decisions.

Try to remove as many bad decisions from your future by understanding what leads to poor decision-making. Make great decisions and enjoy a great future!

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